Musings from a developer of different kinds of formats. Note - this blog is many a time a kind of notebook for me to remember things I've come into touch with or reflections and ideas that I've had during development projects. If you can find use for the writings here, I'm well happy. By Simon Staffans.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

The NOT of Transmedia

Late yesterday evening, as I sat writing on a
transmedia mystery/horror novel I like to keep at hand as my own personal pet
project – a combination of jet lag and a full moon helps no end when you want
to work nights, see – I had a small revelation.

I had written a couple of pages and felt pretty good about myself, so I started
looking over the mindmap of all extensions from and to the novel and from and
to the story world the novel is based in (and trust me, as with all transmedia projects,
these are legio) and a pattern suddenly emerged before me. It had a big fat
headline as well, that pattern – a headline that said ”NOT!”.

You see, as I gazed at the arrows and the dots
and the squares and the texts, I realized that transmedia is as much about what
you decide NOT to use, as what you eventually end up actually USING. As was
stated at the Storyworld conference – all stories can be developed in a
transmedia direction; not nearly all need or deserve it.

If your project does need and deserve to have
transmedia methods applied to them, it is very important to evaluate your
project from the angle of ”what makes sense”. I.e., even though you’ve already
registered the YouTube channel and you really want to produce them awesome
webisodes and put them out there – if all your project needs is a blog, an
automated e-mail response system and a novel, then that’s what your project
should use.

The same goes for interaction with the
audience. I know many who argue that an inherent trait of transmedia
storytelling is the activating and incorporating of the audience, inviting them
to take an active part in the storytelling. I would disagree, as I believe you
can deliver fullfledged transmedia content without the audience doing much more
than choosing what to consume on which platform. I.e., use UGC or user interaction
when it makes sense, NOT when it doesn’t!

The list goes on, but I’m sure you get my
point. Your transmedia project will be defined as much by what you did NOT
utilize within the scope of it as by what you DID utilize.

About Me

I work mainly as a designer of cross and transmedia formats. I also do research into the stuff we develop, get published, do talks etc. Interested in social media as well, and especially the connections between all this stuff and the storytelling possibilities opening up. This is all quite interesting, entertaining and actually even fulfilling. Also, it helps pay the mortgage. Happily married, three great kids.